Re: Qantasaurus

>>And yse, the name is after the airline (Queensland And Northern Territory
>>Air Service).
Ok, ok, I know that should have been "yes".
>I found this interesting after the recent posts on corporate sponsorship. I
>don't want to open up a can of worms here, but I wanted to know if I was
>correct
>in assuming that this is a way to honor a corporation-funded dig?
In this case, Qantas was honoured for the assistance they offered for the
related Russian Dinosaurs exhibition rather than the Dinosaur Cove dig its
self.
>The same question goes for _Atlascoposaurus_.
Yes, this was for the assistance given by Atlascopco during the excavations
at Dinosaur Cove.
>And, if this is indeed the case, are there other examples of dinosaurs named
>after [to flatter?] sponsors? The only others that immediately come to mind are
>_Diplodocus carnegii_ and _Apatosaurus louisae_, after the robber-baron and his
>wife, respectively.
The Riversleigh team has named a number of animals after politicians and
corporate supportors. But in this case and the Dinosaur Cove cases, the
excavations would not have been possible without the political or corporate
support.
To me, this seems like a reasonable "you scratch my back, I'll scratch
your" arrangement. There is a big difference here between sponsors who
provide direct financial support for research and excavations as opposed to
corporate cashing in on dinosaurs with no return to the science (the
subject of the previous thread concerning dinosaur cereals etc).
Cheers,
Paul
Dr Paul M.A. Willis
Consulting Vertebrate Palaeontologist
Quinkana Pty Ltd
pwillis@ozemail.com.au